I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to woven sheeting having warp ends and fill picks, and, more particularly, to such woven sheeting made from spun yarns and synthetic filament yarns.
II. Description of Prior Art
Fabrics for use on or against the skin, such as sheets, pillow cases, undershirts, sleeves, gowns, shirts, and the like may be cut and formed from sheeting comprised of warp end yarns and fill pick yarns woven into a web as is conventional. Selection of yarn for such sheeting often involves a compromise between hand or “feel” and durability. For example, where the yarns are all-natural, 100% cotton, the resultant sheet has a hand that is desirably comfortable and pleasing to the user. However, 100% cotton fabrics do not wear well or readily survive the sometimes harsh laundering procedures to which they may be exposed, especially in commercial or industrial applications such as encountered in connection with hospitals, rest homes, clinics, hotels and the like. In this regard, such fabrics must be able to withstand about 100 to 150 institutional laundry cycles of high temperature or caustic washing, drying, ironing and possibly even steam sterilization.
Similarly, where the web is woven from all synthetic filament yarns, a very durable product is formed, but it suffers from a low hand (i.e., rough feel) that detracts from the web's utility for use on or against the skin.
Various approaches to achieve a balance between durability and hand have been proposed. By way of example, woven sheeting comprised of yarns which are intimately blended spun fibers (which may be all natural or a blend of natural or synthetic) have an acceptable hand, but may not have the desired durability and can be limited by the nature of the spun fiber. In some cases, spun fiber strands and filament strands are twisted into yarns to provide greater durability. While the durability is increased, the twisted yarns have some drawbacks including that they may adversely affect the hand of the resultant web. Others have proposed to use separate, alternating adjacent ends or picks of natural yarns of different character, such as cotton and silk (U.S. Pat. No. 776,275) or mohair and silk (U.S. Pat. No. 1,139,705) in a given weave direction. The latter also suggested use of artificial silk which is believed to have been a reference to rayon or similar cellulosic (i.e., cotton) material, and so was still a natural yarn. These silk-based approaches are not believed to provide a cost-effective and desired balance of hand and durability necessary for fabrics used on or against the skin.
A useful balance of both hand and durability for such sheeting has been achieved by utilizing yarns made from a blend of natural and synthetic material as warp ends, with the weft or fill pick yarns being all natural materials (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,578,306; 4,679,326 and 4,742,183, all owned by the assignee hereof), or by utilizing yarns of spun cotton staples for the warp ends and polyester filament yarns for the fill (U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,874, also owned by the assignee hereof). While the approach of these patents have garnered some success, further improvements are desirable.